Argentina after the last crisis, 2002 - 03

[TheBigDaddy]

A lot of people predicting another meltdown soon, is there anyone around who was here for the 1 or 2 years after the crisis in 2001? Tell us what it was like, the crime, the prices, the lifestyle, share your love

I started coming here in 2005 and even then people were saying the party is over blah blah, that things were so great in 2002 and you could go out to the best restaurant in the city for $10 US, take a taxi anywhere for $2 US, now everything is getting worse.

I know a few people got shot outside my plaza congreso apartment during the crisis, so I assume for all the complaining about crime now, it was much worse then ?

 

[TheBigDaddy]

Oh yeah and of course rental prices

 

[Bajo_cero2]

A lot of people predicting another meltdown soon, is there anyone around who was here for the 1 or 2 years after the crisis in 2001? Tell us what it was like, the crime, the prices, the lifestyle, share your love

I started coming here in 2005 and even then people were saying the party is over blah blah, that things were so great in 2002 and you could go out to the best restaurant in the city for $10 US, take a taxi anywhere for $2 US, now everything is getting worse.

I know a few people got shot outside my plaza congreso apartment during the crisis, so I assume for all the complaining about crime now, it was much worse then ?

A guy called Cardenas was shot at the stairs of the Congress while he was attacking the police men with rocks during the 20th of December 2001.

Right now, I don t think that there is a lot of crime. But if there is a lack of jobs and planes trabajar (something alike food stamps), there will be more crime.

However, this government is the first since Peron that is dealing in a very agresive way to avoid the crisis cicle that Argentina suffers since 1973.

So, unless the soy price falls down, the status quo is going to remains until her 4 years finishes.

Regards

 

[AlexanderB]

So, unless the soy price falls down, the status quo is going to remains until her 4 years finishes.

Do you think that's likely? I don't keep up with commodities markets, but I do know the upward explosion of soy prices throughout the 2000s is largely what drove the Argentine recovery post-corralito.

 

[Napoleon]

So, unless the soy price falls down, the status quo is going to remains until her 4 years finishes.

Regards

This year's drought is going to have the same effect as "soy prices [falling]".

I'm not quite sure why there isn't more irrigation done throughout the BsAs Province, but I visited farm land over Christmas and this year is going to be a bad year. At least in BsAs Province. Don't know about La Pampa.

We've had a lot of rain since Christmas, but it was too late for a lot of the crops.

If there's nothing to tax (or too little to tax), then it's going to be difficult to continue to pay government employees' salaries. This winter things should start getting really sticky.

 

[Ashley]

I was here for the last crisis. If you earned in foreign currency, things were cheap - food, rental prices, house prices, etc. If you didn't, it was pretty bad - a lot of people lost their savings, were forced to sell property at low prices, etc.
Just before devaluation (when it was still US$1 to the peso), prices were high but there wasn't the restrictions on imports, etc that there are now. Plus, the bars, restaurants and shops were EMPTY. No one was buying anything! I've heard that if there is another meltdown, it'll be accompanied by hyper-inflation so I can't imagine that anyone will "benefit". It just feels so much worse now too...with people unable to cobrar their pensions and policies just changing from one day to the next.

 

[John.St]

I was in BsAs in 2002.

I met beggars looking like concentration camp prisoners, people fighting over the trash bags outside restaurants, and more I don't like to remember.

 

[AngelinBA]

I was here in 2002. There were times when you wanted to buy but couldn´t because you could only get AR$300 (?) out of your bank account in cash per month and they expected you to pay by debit card for everything but hardly any businesses had the machines and there was a backlog of months for delivery.
Santa Fe became a deserted street with every second shop empty. Women didn't have enough money to go to hairdressers so a new 'fashion' of long, grey roots was seen everywhere. The whole vibrant atmosphere of the city died. It was grey and depressing and the energy that did exist in the city was all nervous and anxious, not the fun, alive energy I had fallen in love with the city for.

 

[AngelinBA]

I was in BsAs in 2002.

I met beggars looking like concentration camp prisoners, people fighting over the trash bags outside restaurants, and more I don't like to remember.

That's right, I remember on the news an interview with the cartoneros where they were showing the raw chicken carcasses they had found in the rubbish that they were taking home to cook.